Falling fruit from trees such as coconut, breadfruit and jackfruit trees can pose a danger to people in the vicinity of the tree. People have been injured and in some cases killed by falling coconuts. Property such as cars may also be damaged by falling fruit. Measures which have been employed to minimize the risks associated with such trees includes simple warning signs alerting people to the dangers, removing fruit when green before it ripens and falls and even removing the offending trees. Fruit removal is a manually intensive and costly procedure. Further, green fruit may still become dislodged under conditions such as high wind or be loosened or dislodged by animals feeding on the fruit. Whilst tree removal is a final solution in many cases it is neither environmentally, culturally, nor aesthetically desirable.
Other types of trees drop fruit, nuts, seeds and the like, which although may not pose a safety threat, the falling of such bodies may be undesirable. For example, the dropping of fruit, seeds or the like onto areas such as lawns, golf greens, swimming pools and the like is undesirable for many reasons. Currently, when trees are fruiting and dropping fruit, the dropped fruit must be manually cleared from the area. Such clearing is typically manually intensive and can add to maintenance costs.
Harvesting of fruit from trees may also be an energy intensive process. Harvesting of coconuts for example is still carried out by traditional methods. The simplest method is to wait for the coconuts to fall on the ground and manually pick them up. A disadvantage of collecting coconuts from the ground is that it is manually intensive. Further, whilst on the ground coconuts are susceptible to damage by animals and rodents in particular. Alternatively and/or in addition to, trained climbers climb the trees to pick the coconuts. In some Asian countries specially trained monkeys are used for this purpose. Seed collection is another area where collectors wait for seeds to fall onto the ground and/or climb trees to collect the seeds. Again this is a manually intensive process. Further, climbing trees is an inherently risky procedure.
Various types of fruit collecting or harvesting devices have been proposed over the years. Some of these devices include a fruit catching apron or the like which extends radially from the trunk of the tree. In many cases, these earlier devices include quite complicated attachment and support means in the form of rigid support arms. Some earlier devices represent inverted umbrellas. Some of these devices include complicated means for guiding the fruit from a catching are to a collection area. These earlier devices generally include numerous parts, are expensive to manufacture and complicated and time consuming to install. Further, in view of the complicated nature of the devices and moving parts therein, regular maintenance is required. Further such devices are subject to damage by the weight of the falling fruit themselves and under adverse weather conditions. Further, it is believed that many of these earlier devices were developed based on the assumption that trees grow vertically and trunks have a circular cross-section. In practice this is not always the case and the present inventor is unaware of any such devices being in commercial use today.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device for collecting vegetation falling from a tree, which may at least partially overcome the above disadvantages or provide the public with a useful or commercial choice.